Friday, July 29, 2011

Tender Mercies

Okay, there have been tons of good things happening to the Matthew and Amber Seeley family as of late..

The first obvious tender mercy that has been given to us lately is my ear getting better. I was able to keep my scholarship, and after much huffing and puffing, I was able to finish my independent study courses (granted with a week-long extension that was so generously given.) Seriously, it was probably the most difficult deadline I have ever attempted to meet...and I'm a procrastinator, so that's saying something!

But I already basically told all of you about that. The first tender mercy is our new home. Yes, we are moving...again. This will be the third move Matt and I have made together, and we haven't even been married a year yet. (Anniversary is comin' up!) We found a place that is like, 4 blocks south of campus, has a dishwasher, washer/dryer, two bedrooms, lots of storage space, and a garage! It's only $500 a month, $200 less than we're paying now. We weren't sure we were going to get it, because we were 1 of like, 20 couples looking at the place and submitting applications. This decision for me to get the master's right now was a pretty tough one, because we didn't know how we were going to afford it. But the Lord provided a way! We'll save money on gas from driving AND on rent. Seriously, we couldn't be more excited. Although we are extremely sad to leave our amazing ward, we know this is the right thing for us to do. You can bet your bottom dollar that we won't be moving until we graduate. And it's a good thing too. Moving is not the most soothing of experiences.

The second tender mercy is that Matt is getting PUBLISHED in BYU's law review journal! He wrote a 40 page article about shaken baby syndrome basically saying that before someone is accused for shaking their baby to death and sentenced to a life in prison, doctors should check the dead baby for bone density and some other bone diseases. Even the most fragile handling of a baby with some of these diseases could kill it. There are many innocent parents who go to jail for the rest of their lives who are innocent! Some are not obviously, but some are, and we need to make sure that the people going to jail are guilty! Anyway, Matt literally spent over 100 hours on this research paper, and when he heard that it was going to get published in the law review journal, he was so happy. I was so happy too. My baby is a GENIUS, and it's great to see that other people notice it too! It's not very often at ALL that students get published in this journal. It's mainly professors. This will be SO good on his resume'. But what makes him the most happy is that he could be saving some people's lives if doctors read this article!

Matt flexing his muscles at Chili's where we went to celebrate the good news.

Lastly, while we are extremely tight financially right now, we have an increased testimony on paying tithing. We have been consistent with that, too, and I have been blessed with just enough money in recording gigs that are showing up out of nowhere that will help us get by through the move. I seriously couldn't be more grateful.

Among these wonderful things that are taking place in our whirlwind of a busy life, we are blessed with a kind family and great friends. We have so many wonderful opportunities that are ahead of us. We are growing more and more in love every day. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. We seriously couldn't be happier.